The Sports Inquirer

By E. Marcel Pourtout, Editor

Behind a 35-23 scoring advantage in the fourth quarter, the Detroit Pistons emerged with a 104-100 road preseason victory Saturday night over the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena.

Andre Drummond finished with game-highs in points (19) and rebounds (17) for a double-double in the Detroit victory. Brandon Jennings (16), Kyle Singler (15), Josh Smith (14), D.J. Augustine (14) and Greg Monroe (11) also scored in double-figures for the Pistons. Jennings also had a game-high 11 assists for a double-double of his own.

Jeff Teague had a team-high 16 points for Atlanta in the loss. He also posted a double-double with 10 assists.

“Tonight is good learning (experience) for us,” Atlanta coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Defensively, to give up 35 points in the fourth quarter is obviously not something we want to do do. Finishing games in our league is really important…its something that we need to improve on, all of us.”

Trailing 93-84 with 5:38 left in the game, the Pistons mounted their comeback. Two consecutive three-pointers by Jennings brought the Pistons within three points. After two Pero Antic free throws, Drummond converted a three-point play to make the score 95-93 with 4:00 left.

Augustine made two free throws to tied the game at 95-95. After a Hawks’ miss, Monroe was fouled on a shot attempt and make his two free throws to give Detroit the 97-95 lead with 3:15 left in the contest.

The Pistons went on a 7-3 run through the rest of the game to secure the victory.

“I thought that we just had a lot of missed opportunities,” Hawks’ DeMarre Carroll said. “We’ll try to get better from that.”

Al Horford added, “We need to work on our execution…but most importantly, we allowed 35 points…that’s way too many points.”

Detroit held a 29-26 lead after the first quarter. Both teams shot well from the floor for high percentages with Atlanta at 55.6 percent and Detroit at 52.2 percent.

Both teams traded baskets throughout the second quarter with the Pistons taking a 54-52 lead into the locker room. Teague had a game-high 13 points for the Hawks while Drummond and Singler each had 12 for Detroit. Drummond also had nine rebounds in the first half.